Transcript
Comedy, Nostalgia, and Mission 1 Billion (Hour 2)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Tue Oct 21, 2025
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We are getting it done on a Tuesday night.
Lots of fun here tonight.
Great to have you with me.
Jimmy Pardo is here.
We will get back to Jim in just a minute.
Coming up at 7.35, Rex Sykes will be here, one of the co-founders of Not The Million Man, March Conrad.
Help me out again.
One billion strong.
No, one billion.
It's one billion.
What is it?
I can't pronounce the city.
in the Middle East, and now I can't, you've got it though.
All right, fine, Conrad, I'll pull it up.
One billion strong, no, it's not it.
This is driving me mad.
Mission one billion.
They're going to tell you all about it.
We've got Rocky Wagonhurst.
He is a TV executive in Milwaukee at the CW.
And Rex Sykes is the co-founder.
They have a great event going on tomorrow night in Milwaukee.
We'll talk about that at 7.30.
Two swell guys.
Our question of the night is in honor of National Back to the Future Day.
What era would you travel back to?
And we've got to catch up on text.
We'll do that in just a bit.
Let's get back to our guest, Jimmy Pardo, one of my oldest friends in the biz, so to speak.
And, Jim,
You have such a great, I don't want to say extreme of consciousness, but you're very off the cuff, very in the moment.
You have a very unique style.
You can go off on a tangent and spend 10 minutes there, and it's a thing of beauty to watch.
Thank you.
People would probably jump to the conclusion that it's Robin Williams or Jonathan Winters, and I'm sure you've been kind of influenced by them, but who else?
Who's influenced your comedy?
Well, I gotta admit, Jonathan Winters might be a little bit before my, you know, my inspirator, you know, certainly a genius and so on.
But Robin certainly was somebody, but the ones that really are the forefront of my mind are Richard Lewis is my hero.
Yeah.
He was, he was streaming of consciousness.
Same deal.
Yes.
Off the top of his head.
He would also, he was also a great joke writer, but Richard would also just talk about his life or his day in that brilliant way that he would.
And so I,
He's the guy that I feel like I'm that I most like.
He's my hero.
Paul Reiser is a hero.
You know, Don Rickles, of course.
Somebody once I was overseas and I did a show and somebody once said it'll be very easy to compare Pardo to Rickles.
But I think the best compliment is to say he's like Groucho.
Oh, wow.
I was like, you know what, I'll take that.
I don't I agree with that.
I think that, you know,
Groucho was off the top of his head and he would he would quote-unquote insult somebody but you even even more so than Don you knew he was kidding right and So I'll take all these guys, you know, whatever.
However, you want to you know, absolutely I think the current crop of guys that are you know improvising and doing quote-unquote crowd work that are getting all the acclaim I don't I don't think they're good at it
I think that there's a craft to this, and it infuriates me to see these guys that are getting Netflix specials.
They all crowd work.
Oh, man.
And it's really hackneyed, easy
crowd work.
And it's not all that special or clever.
It's interesting, because it's all on Reels.
It's like, watch this comedian shut this guy down.
I'm like, oh, I got to see this.
And I click it.
And I'm
like, that's so lame.
That's just clickbait.
And it's like, I'm sorry.
There's just too much of it out there.
Agreed.
You know
what I mean?
Like, I don't know.
I do.
And there's a new trend of that where it's like everybody's afraid to put their material online.
So they all put down their crowd work.
And it's like, but you don't do crowd work.
Why do you want that to be what you're known for?
If that's not what you do, right?
It makes no sense to me.
And also, like, you'll see times where a guy, you know, comedians shuts down heckler and the heckler wins.
Why would you put this online?
Exactly.
I know
it's maddening.
I don't even click on them anymore.
Now I just get a billion pictures of feet in my feet, which is always fun
because
I clicked on a really gross foot once.
So now you get all your bad days in a mixture of good and bad feet?
Some, but I'm clicking.
I'm not even a foot guy and I'm clicking on the good feet just to make sure they pop up more than the bad feet, if that
makes
sense.
You
don't want to fungus foot.
I get it.
And Richard Lewis, I had the, one of my first times like leaving the Midwest was to work in Florida and I opened for him.
And I remember a joke he did.
And he said, he said, the babe got up to bat and pointed like, I'm going to hit a home run.
That's his joke was, that's like me saying, you know, I'm going to get an erection.
And when I told this to the other comic, the comic closed his eyes and put his head down and just pointed.
That made me laugh even more than with Richard Lewis,
because he loved
it so much.
It was so beautiful.
But that's a great cop, Richard Lewis, I think.
I love him.
I love him.
And I miss him.
I know what to say.
He was a friend, but we became very friendly towards the end of his life.
Yeah.
Oh, that's so cool.
And I was grateful for that because it's like, man, I can't believe I'm friends with the guy that I say is the reason I do stand up.
That's pretty amazing.
You know, what's funny is he, I never saw him again after that, but he was so nice to me.
And then I worked down there again with David Brenner.
It was a big club.
They brought in a lot of these big names and he brought me into his dressing room and just I thought I was in trouble.
And he was just picking my brain and talking to me, right?
Two of the biggest guys in comedy were so nice to me that kind of ruined the rest of it.
Because you meet guys that were headlining that hadn't even been on TV and they were the biggest jerks in the world.
And I'm like, yeah, why can't they all be like those guys?
I will say this that when, you know, in talking to Richard, while he was nice to you in Florida, there's a reason why you never saw him again.
He he did not care for you.
And you came up a lot.
I brought you up a lot.
I was
like- If he had that strong an opinion, I'm an opener who had been doing stand up a year and badmouth me.
I would even respect him more
somehow.
That's a good point.
Yeah.
I'll take that.
So let me ask you this, Jim.
You've got this great podcast.
And I love, every once in a while, people will send me a message or whatever.
Hey, heard your name on Never Not Funny.
I just love that.
And I feel like I'm part of this thing that's been going on forever, which is such a successful and fun-
podcast you got in on the ground floor.
But what would you be doing if you hadn't done that?
Would you be doing more standup?
Would you have continued like you're a really good host?
You've done a lot of acting.
Like
what would you have done?
I don't have a clue, Pete.
You know what?
I mean, I started the podcast in 2006 and then I got hired by Conan in 2009.
So my life kind of, you know, kind of became just in those lanes.
You know, I was with Conan for eight years.
Seven or eight years Wow, and then the podcast is going on now 20 years and so I don't know the answer to that because I kind of I guess I'd be doing what I boy I I'm happy with the amount of stand-up for that I do these days I do it.
I do when I sprinkling I go out I do one night I do one show in one night the city and I move on to the next city and I don't get sick of my own voice and I enjoy it I would hate to think that I would be lugging luggage
every Thursday to the airport.
So I Pete, I'll say this, I asked my I asked myself that question all the time.
And the answer is I don't I don't know.
And thank God, I don't have to know
little gratitude.
Absolutely.
No, that that's a great answer, actually.
And I appreciate the honesty.
Have you been to the soup plantation recently?
Well, they got they are closed during the lockdown.
Because buffets were you know, buffets were seen as something like you know, you can't share the ladle
Right.
And that.
But I don't understand it.
It's got a built-in sneeze guard.
It's got the mask.
The mask is already there for you.
What do they want?
I don't know.
I think it was an excuse for them to go out of business.
I don't know if they were doing well.
Man, I love the soup plantation.
I love that place.
We would just sit there for hours.
It was so much fun.
Who doesn't like salad and pizza
slices?
We still laugh.
We went to shaky's once when
we
first moved there.
You know my wife was new to LA as was I and you were showing us around and this great host helping us get used to the area and we went to the shakies to the buffet and Mary sat with the plates while we went to get salad and you said well you please tell Mary she doesn't have to guard the plates.
Here's my takeaway from that story.
First of all, A, we have fun.
There's no question about that.
B, you say I'm this great host that I'm showing you around town.
I bring you to the chain restaurant Shakies.
We're in LA and I bring it to get, you know, a corporate pizza.
What about, is that a good
host?
Let me take you to a place that's, yeah, it's a franchise, but it's a lot better than the one in Wisconsin or Chicago.
It was a good, it was a good Shakies.
It was a great Shakies.
They had soda.
The fried chicken was delicious.
I loved it.
Yeah, my wife hates the place, so we can't even, I can't even look at it when we drive past it.
It's like, uh, because if I look at it, I'm gonna go, my body will go, Hey, what about shakies?
And I know the answer.
So I got, I just gotta, gotta have little horse blinders on.
We had a lot of the kids birthday parties there.
It was fun, but I'm laughing because your wife, when apparently when you first got together with her, she was.
It's like, why does he do this?
Why does he go to Barrel Eels?
Why does he like Shakies?
What is he doing?
Yeah, but she still loved me and she tolerated my nonsense.
We've been together now 27 years, I think it is.
That's crazy.
Very grateful.
I want her back on the show, but I don't want to be a pest.
So
passed.
No, you're not a pest.
Ask her.
Oh, I have.
I've emailed her and she's, you know, keeps claiming it goes to her junk box, which is fine.
Um, no, I'm kidding.
I would love to have her on and I will email her again, but I don't want
to,
you know, I'm like, I don't know.
Hey, before we let you get out of here, Jim, you're a good binge watcher.
Are you binge watching anything you could recommend?
You know what, uh, you know, Taskmaster is always great to watch that on YouTube.
The great, uh, you know, game show from, uh, from England.
Oh, yeah.
Uh, hosted by Greg Davies, who, who I actually wrote a fan letter to.
I wrote Greg Davies.
Really?
A fan letter saying you know people here Robin Williams once said that I had a quicker mind than him Robin Williams said that to me.
I remember
honors And so and I wrote Greg Davies to tell him just so you know that this Compliment doesn't come out of nowhere.
Greg Robin Williams told me I'm the funniest man he's ever seen I'm telling you you're the fastest mind of the scene So so understand I'm complimenting you and he wrote back a real nice email.
It was very kind so I love Taskmaster and I it's it's been
months since it ended, and I'm kind of going through withdrawal about it.
Wow.
The pit.
I thought the pit was the greatest thing I've seen on TV in ages.
A lot of people agree with you.
Yeah,
I didn't care
for it.
No, I watched the first episode.
I'm not a huge medical drama guy.
I just finished task.
I love a good cop show or a good.
Yeah, me too.
But
And my buddy Jamie is the bad guy on it.
He's great.
And I just watched the finale.
It was so good.
But I have to go back to the pit because I've heard so much good stuff about it.
Can I say this?
Yeah.
I have never in my life.
I'm a cop guy, too.
I'm currently watching Police Woman starring Angie Dickinson.
That's what I'm bingeing at the moment.
I don't like medical shows.
And somebody said the pit is great.
The first episode is like, oh, man, well, I don't know.
This isn't for me.
But then, man, I was all in.
And now, like I say, I'm like, I'm jonesing for when it comes back.
It was really great.
All right.
I'll definitely take another look.
That's great.
Please don't tell anyone.
I called a Riyadh, Rydia.
I just go into these things where I see it once and it stays.
I called it Parmesan cheese till I was in college, Jim, because my parents are the farthest thing from Italian there is.
I thought the word was catastrophic, not catastrophe.
You know, I once read somewhere, Pete, that if you mispronounce a word, it just means you haven't heard it.
You've only read it.
So you're an educated person.
So I take, whenever I mispronounce something, I remember that and it makes me feel better about it.
I
do because I don't watch the, I cannot watch Talking Heads anymore.
I read all my news, but I have heard, I know what that word is.
So I don't know what category that puts me.
Parmesan?
Of course
you know what that word is.
You should have noted what it is for years.
Parmesan.
My parents still laugh.
They tried to ruin me.
Hey, buddy, this is so much fun.
You're the best.
My pleasure.
Yeah, always fun, Jim.
Tell Danielle and Oliver hello, and let's talk soon,
buddy.
Good luck with wrecked sikes.
That's all I can say.
We'll do.
Thanks, pal.
Thanks, Jim.
So, Jimmy, I loved his answer.
He would travel back to before Clint's circumcision.
I don't even know how that affects Jim, but he...
He seems to think that that would be a better time for him, which is not a bad answer.
Yeah, Rex Sykes is coming up with Rocky Wagonhurst.
We're going to talk about Mission 1 Billion, a great event going on tomorrow.
Rex is one of the co-founders of the organization.
And Rocky Wagonhurst is a TV executive at the CW in Milwaukee.
So we'll have that talk in just a few minutes.
When we come back, we are going to read your texts.
And what am I?
Am I forgetting something, Conrad?
I feel like I'm forgetting something.
so.
Is Jimmy Partle coming up yet?
I think so.
Was he just on the show?
All right, we'll read your texts.
Maybe we'll find a funny clip.
We'll do something.
It's a Tuesday night at Nightlight, folks.
What could be better?
I'm Pete Schwabba.
Great to have you with me on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
Hi, I'm Pete Schwabba.
It's great to have you with me.
It is a Tuesday night here.
It's a Tuesday night edition of Nightlight.
Oftentimes the best edition of Nightlight throughout the course of the week.
We're gonna get caught up with your texts in just a moment.
Tonight's question is, what era would you travel back to?
What is national back to the future day?
So that is our question.
Be part of the show and let us know what you think or where you'd go.
So I do these Nightlight window pictures.
every night.
And I go out to take a picture and these two guys are trying to get in the building.
I'm like, hey man, what gives?
Ready to kick some ass, right?
Yeah, of course.
Kidding, they don't pay me that much money.
I'm kidding.
But I'm not going to risk bodily harm.
If someone's trying to get in the building, go ahead.
It's all yours guys.
There's nothing in the till.
We keep no cash.
No, they were very nice guys.
They are running a fishing.
It's a, this is what it is.
And I did some research on this.
It seems legit.
Very nice, guys.
They're looking for volunteers.
It's international teams fishing.
The 2025 Street Fishing World Championship.
Street fishing.
What is street fishing?
I guess it's like playground basketball, but for fishing, like you fish the streets, right?
It says, see international anglers fishing along the banks of the Fox River in Green Bay, city of Depeer, village of Allaway, and village of Ashwabanan.
Cheer on your favorite nation, all catch and release.
Now I'm an inside guy, but even I know what that means.
That means you catch the fish and you throw it back.
Very humane.
But you can find more information if you want at www.usangling.org, www.usangling.org.
It was John Knight and Mike, I have to find Mike's last name, McNat.
Nice guys, good luck with the event guys.
It will be on our nightlight fun window picture tonight.
And are you a
Yeah, me either.
I like this is not a pun either, but the angle, the street fishing world championship.
I don't think I could ever watch fishing either, but.
I don't know.
Maybe with a winning attitude we could.
Just show up, bring our game face.
We got a phone call?
Northwest.
All right.
Ollie, how are you?
I'm good.
You guys sound great tonight.
Well, thank you.
Thanks for listening.
What's on your mind?
Well, if I could go back to the future, I would pick 1946.
OK.
And for one reason, because then I would be born before my oldest sister.
And I would actually be the oldest sister.
And believe me, it was no fun being the middle sister.
And I could give them some of a taste of their own medicine.
You could boss them around.
Yep.
My wife is a middle child too, Ollie.
So I've heard this my whole time with her, like she constantly is saying that there's a national middle child day.
I don't know if you know that, but you should celebrate that as well.
And yeah, 46, that's when I would go.
Maybe we could hit a gin joint together in a different era, Ollie.
That would be fun.
That sounds good.
All right.
My sister used to...
I had two older sisters, and they used to take me and my little sister, and they would say, oh, let's play, let's play fights.
And they would get each, my older sister would take me into one corner, and the other sister would take my younger sister
into
another corner.
And then they'd say, okay, when we ring the bell, you girls come out fighting.
And we were so stupid that we'd do it, and then they'd sit there and say, kicker, biker, pull a hair.
Oh my
gosh.
What in the heck was happening in the Northwoods household?
That's
great.
Well, my dad was in the army then, and we did have lots of great times traveling.
So it would have been wonderful to be the older sister during that time.
Well, I wish you luck in the next life, my friend.
Great phone call.
Thank you so much, Ollie, as always.
All right, have a great night.
JB Thompson, watching the radio on the stream says a concert full of nude people doesn't happen to you often.
It does not.
Maybe I'm running with the wrong crowd.
Cause that was my comment to you earlier.
People go to Woodstock and all of a sudden they're surrounded by nude people.
It's a Saturday.
I'm usually reading scripture and heading off to church then, but you guys do what you gotta do.
Jim from Appleton in the 920 says the 1970s, early on the best music, we still play it on the radio.
Muscle cars were top of the line.
That's a great text.
Thank you, Jim.
I never had a muscle car.
We said they'd be cool though, like a Mustang or something.
Steve from Florida, the 920.
Conrad's dad says, the era I would love to travel back to is in 1865, so I could meet my great, great, great grandfather, Nicholas, when he bought the homestead farm in Ashford, Wisconsin.
That would be Conrad's great, great, great, great grandfather, great, great, great, great grandfather.
That's a lot of greats.
And your dad just said that's a lot of greats.
right?
Yeah
You're like the farm Kennedys of Wisconsin
I can't imagine I would not do well on a farm.
I have allergies And I don't like hay.
you really?
Yeah.
Oh, that's pretty cool Thank you for the family history there Steve appreciate that Let's see what else am I am I missing anything?
I think I'm caught up on text, right?
Where's your mom's text?
I'll let you read that because she's your mom.
It's the 50s.
Happy days was set in the 50s, filmed in the 70s.
And I always thought that too, Paula.
Actually, I remember watching that when I was growing up and I thought that would be a cool, I don't know.
That's a great answer.
All right.
It's not too late.
Text us what area you would like to travel to.
When we come back, we're going to talk about a really cool event put on by Mission 1 and Billion.
That is tomorrow night in Milwaukee.
Co-founder Rex Sykes will be here and TV executive in Milwaukee at the CW, Rocky Wagonhurst, who said a really cool history will be here too.
That's coming up next on Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
Welcome
back.
This is Nightlight.
I am Pete Schwabbe.
You've got the Civic Media Radio Network.
Our question of the night is, in honor of National Back to the Future Day.
It's so cool that a movie has a national day.
It is a great film.
But our question is, what era would you travel to?
I say the late 1940s after World War II, hitting the jazz joints, maybe hitting the road like Jack Kerouac.
Conrad says the medieval times.
I still have no idea why, but you know, to be a night and a gesture.
That was destined to be one.
That's right.
All right, let us know.
You can still get in on the fun.
Right now we are going to turn our attention to two swell gents who are joining us over the stream to talk about a really cool event tomorrow night in Milwaukee.
It's called the event while the group is called Mission One.
Billion of very ambitious undertaking by co-founder Rex Sykes and the speaker at tomorrow night's event is Rocky Wagenhurst a TV executive in Milwaukee at the CW and he has had a really lengthy interesting career, too They both join me now over the stream gentlemen.
How are you?
Hey, how you doing Peter
doing very well Rocky nice to meet you and Rex good to see you again, buddy
You my friend
Do you guys have an area you would travel?
I know you'd rather travel tomorrow night to your really cool event, but if you could travel back, where would you go?
You want to go first, right?
Let's go.
I'd go back to 2039.
I'm pretty sure that's forward,
but... Wait, where are you?
Where are you?
I'm in 2025 at the moment.
I thought we all were.
Oh, my
God, you're so passing.
But you could travel all the way back around like Fonzie got his bike to make the Earth go back, you know, or
Superman.
I think they were gritty and wonderful and magnificent in Los Angeles.
I think Rocky might agree.
He's from there.
Yeah.
Yeah, late late 60s early 70s, you know, if you just if you can be old enough not to get drafted in that late 60s and yeah, then that great I think that was the greatest time for really television episodic stuff, you know, I That movie once upon a time in Hollywood.
I wanted to be I mean that was my time I was about 14 that
was
1969 and if I was a little bit older, I would have loved the Brad Pitt's
Um, you know, but he played this stunt double
cliff booth.
Yeah.
That's, that's what I wanted to be.
I thought that would be the greatest job in the world, fall off horses and, uh, you know, do fights and, you know, uh, crack whips and punch people in the face, but don't believe her.
That's
fantastic.
Yeah.
Go ahead, Rex.
Oh, I just wanted to say, Bob, your keys to stuntman was a good friend of mine.
He had a stunt school.
I never did it.
A lot of my friends did.
And I've regretted not doing Bob's.
program all that while, most of the people who went through programs became stunt people.
I didn't want to be one at the time, but what a magnificent opportunity I passed up.
Well, magnificent opportunity for someone else.
It sounds like I'm kind of with you there, Rex.
Well, the great thing was nice though, as you get older, you know, I'm kind of older now.
When you learn how to fall, I mean, I really was riding my bike the other day and going up and I kind of hit something and fell and
the the
It helps if you have knee pads and elbow pads.
Absolutely.
Well, it's great to have you guys here.
So let's talk about this.
Rex, you reached out to me a couple of weeks ago.
It sounds like a really fun event.
It sounds like a very interesting group.
Before we talk about the event, tell us how this group came to be and what exactly your mission is with.
Well, thanks for asking,
Pete.
And you know, I love you.
So I appreciate you having us on.
My
pleasure.
Mission One Billion was the brainchild of Dan Bruskell, who is my co-founder, co-partner.
He and I had very similar goals, and that was to create essentially a program, a working progress, a platform that would allow
People and I think by the way mission 1 billion is is too small.
I think we could reach mission all billions You know the point is if you remember hands across America All you had to do is just make sure that you didn't break the chain and you could stretch people all the way across the country We can do that with everybody in the world if we wanted to the the mission 1 billion the the brilliant part of it was
for both of us was we wanted an educational platform that would help support filmmakers anywhere in the world and help them produce their projects, market their projects, distribute the projects and make money in doing so.
And we wanted to do that in Wisconsin now that the incentives are coming in.
We wanted to support filmmakers who are within the state who don't necessarily benefit from the...
from the incentives, but we applaud the incentives.
We celebrate the incentives and we're glad that they're here.
What Dan had added to the whole mix that said, I'm in, was he said, I want to give a portion of the proceeds to charity for children in need.
And I went, this is absolutely amazing.
Not only are we doing the work that we love, but we're adding to benefiting other people.
So mission one billion is about supporting filmmakers in their endeavors.
helping them to profit and also give money to charity.
That's the voice of Rex Sykes.
He is one of the co-founders of Mission One Billion.
And
we're a non-profit.
And a non-profit.
And you can catch his movie beat on YouTube.
He likes to talk movies.
Rocky Weggenhurst is also here.
He is a TV executive in Milwaukee at the CW, a vice president and general manager of the CW network.
Rocky, how did you end up in Milwaukee?
Are you digging it?
Yeah, I mean, I've been here almost two and a half years now.
And I'm one of those TV guys, you know, I've moved all over.
I started in 84, you know, in television and moved from Sacramento, grew up in Los Angeles, started my career as a TV guy, you know, as a count exec in Sacramento, went to Denver, went back to LA for a while, then went back out.
I've been to Bozeman.
I was in Baltimore for a lot of years.
I work at the CBS O&O, I work for Comcast, UPN.
I always love this kind of the second and third stations in the market because it's a lot more fun.
Getting that football team that's five or six away from the Super Bowl, it makes it a little bit more fun.
And my wife was an anchor.
She's done it since she was 17 and she's retired now.
And so we're at that point where the kids are away.
I knew the Sinclair folks that own the stations out here, CW 18 and my 24.
And they said, you know, if you still want to work, I mean, if you want to go out there and a couple of things, see what you can do.
And, and came out and, you know, started to add local programming, because I think that's really the thing that I think is so important for broadcasters, especially in, you know, the affiliates, you know, we get the network stuff.
you know, really, it's the community and what we serve.
And I've really enjoyed Milwaukee and, you know, I become, well, I've been a Green Bay Packer fan since the 60s.
I mean, how could you be a football fan and not, you know, to me, that's like can up there.
mean, I would rather go there and see that stadium than go see the.
the in Canton.
But, you know, and the brewers, you know, I mean, I admit, I'm a Los Angeles diehard guy, you know, Dodgers, I can't, you know, they're not quite the Dodgers I grew up watching.
But, you know, they're pretty, pretty fantastic guys and brewers.
I always say, guys, it takes a long time, you know, you almost got it.
It's it takes a while to get used to doing it.
The Dodgers go and they usually don't win.
So, you know, so
you know so it's really been great you know and then the bucks I guess they start tomorrow night so we got that but I really enjoyed living in Milwaukee and and the audience and we've kind of grown this two stations and added a lot of high school sports and some local shows bowling shows we have a NASCAR local show there around
the
air we run Bill Michaels sports show once a week we have a local wrestling show so
anything that's going to get local.
So the folks in Milwaukee is something that's unique to them instead of watching just all the network stuff and
game shows
and stuff.
So really enjoyed it.
Really my time here so far has been great.
That's great.
So I'm sure you're excited about tomorrow night.
What is tomorrow night going to be like you guys?
Like what can if people do want to go, what can they expect and how can they get more information?
Well, if I want to go before Rocky, you know, here's the cool thing.
We did our first charity event in August where we gave money to make a wish children and so that was a kickoff event and every month we did four or five weekly meetings and then we did our starting our monthly meetings and last month we had Michael Seibel he's the director most of his movies are between X amount of dollars and 20 million dollars he's done about a dozen movies local ads as well as in Hollywood and in Indian all over the world and about 400 TV shows both as the director and TV.
And Rocky and Michael are alumni, alumnus from UCLA.
They go back a long way.
Michael is from Wisconsin.
He lived in wassa for a while and then moved to the Appleton area where he is now.
Like he, I go back to my home in LA and also in Wisconsin.
I'm not by coastal, but nearly by coastal.
I'm by something, but I don't know.
Lake Michigan counts, come on.
Lake Michigan LA.
But Rocky, I got to meet Rocky through Michael, and I'm so thrilled to have Rocky, because Rocky's not only an actor and a filmmaker and a media visionary, and he knows about AI, and he's a studio executive and television executive.
But he brings such a wealth of experience and practical application information to each of us that we, tomorrow night, October 22, Wednesday at Schmidde's Bar and Grill in Brookfield, Wisconsin on Lisbon Avenue, if you want to look it up.
And it's open to the public.
Mission One Billion is an educational arm.
We do workshops, seminars.
that are paid for, you know, people sign up classes, I teach acting and other things.
But we also have open to the public and free events and Rocky has been gracious enough to say that he would speak tomorrow night to the public who shows up and to answer their questions about how to navigate a career.
And I'll let him tell you more about that.
But I'm thrilled because Rocky's just an amazing guy.
I've gotten to know Rocky and I love him.
So I'm thrilled that we get to have him speak.
And I hope it's the first of many times.
But so Rocky, you take it away.
Yeah, Rocky, what do you teach?
What do you tell people?
Let's say all these people who don't know the first thing about this business, whether it's behind the scenes in front of the camera, whatever.
How do you even start with them?
Well, you know, it's, I mean, I laugh, you know, because Rex, I was really lucky.
Michael Seibel, I was my fraternity brother UCLA, really, really talented guy.
We had another fraternity brother, Tim Moore, who'd been an executive producer with Clint Eastwood, I think from every movie he did.
He was also the executive producer on that famous Patrick Swayze cult film,
Um, uh, what's that?
What's the roadhouse road, roadhouse?
I was hoping you'd say roadhouse.
Yeah.
Oh, it's the
greatest.
You know, any, you know, I always, you know, those are the kind of things that nobody went and saw when it came out, but it just, you know, kind of built its own audience.
And so we had a really, a lot of talented guys and, and, um, you know, we, you say, LA, I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, Woodland Hills in the sixties.
And, you know, the television movie business was just kind of like,
what people did.
There was no walls up and the big, big movie stars wouldn't see, but television actors would be living up the street, and it was like regular jobs.
You could walk to studios.
I went to UCLA thinking I was going to be a lawyer.
and I guess it was my junior year I wanted to be a litigator so somebody said well take an acting class because that way you get up and defend the world or whoever you're going to defend and so I did that and really kind of liked it and I got
Cast in a couple of plays and start doing stuff.
I got a commercial agent Did some so I mean it's kind of like boy.
This is 500 bucks a day is better than going to school today But I did end up graduating so my parents are really proud of me for doing that But the really what started me on this all whole thing is I got
I became a tour guide at Universal Studios back in the late
70s.
I saw that in your bio.
Let's pick up right there.
We got to do a really short break.
And you did it the smart way, Rocky.
I went to law school to become an actor.
And that didn't work out
at
all.
So I think you were on the right track.
Hey, Rex Sykes is here and Rocky Wagonhurst.
And we're talking about a really cool event they have going on tomorrow night with Mission 1 Billion.
We'll tell you more about it after this very short, very short break, folks.
We're in the home stretch here.
You've waited this long.
Don't call any words.
Peach Wabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Always been a fun show.
We got a few minutes left here from the 818 Bridget says, the 1950s seems like a fun time.
Music, clothes, identity.
Couldn't agree more, Bridget, from the 818.
Great text.
Thank you.
We have a couple more minutes with our guests, Rex Sykes and Rocky Wagenhurst.
Rocky, did you have to be an actor with a name like that?
Well, I really had no choice.
But Rocky Wagenhurst always sounded like there was a...
If you went in for audition, it sounded like there was a lot of us that would be coming in.
It's like we're going to come in juggling or something.
But just a little bit, just because I know we want to we want to promote tomorrow and they're thinking, OK, great, you were a tour guide.
What are we OK if we want to get a tour guide job?
But really what what I really talk about is how.
to be able to have both.
Everybody always thinks, especially when they're young, well, I've got to do it all, be all creative and do movies and be TV and be an actor for the rest of my life, or I can't.
really, I learned long ago you can do as much or as little as you want.
You can do both.
You can have a life.
You can have kids.
You can get married, have a house, have a mortgage, have a real-life job, but work it so you can still do stuff.
And then the more stuff you can do, then less of the other job you have to do.
It's not all or nothing.
And I've been able to do that all my life.
I've got to be in movies, TV, I've done radio show, I've done everything and still had a really nice career along the way.
You know, I think I've driven my wife a little crazy and she still likes me after 37 years, but it's really, and that's what we'll talk about tomorrow about, you know, I'm not going to teach you how to act or how to do anything.
I can help you.
teach you how to get a job, how to,
how to
go about those kind of things in just about anything.
And it's pretty applicable to everything.
I always told Rex, I'm kind of like, you know, force, force gum.
I've met all these great people.
I've been on sets with Spielberg and things, right?
But I just never got, you know, the gum, a gum, a, you know, shrimp
and
became a millionaire.
Obviously, I'm still working, but that's okay.
You
know, it's
It's a lot of stuff and I love more of what people want to come and ask me about or tell them up, tell me about them.
Cause I already know what I know, but I'd love to hear people come out and share their ideas.
And really it's more of that than it's going to be like, Hey, let me talk for an hour and everybody take notes.
That's not the way it works.
Well, you've got a guy here who's an open book folks.
So if you are listening and you're in the Milwaukee area, check this out tonight because Rocky is very approachable.
I know Rex is very approachable.
We got a text to Rocky that said, Rocky, you like Ohtani?
How can you not, right?
I mean, killed our brothers.
You know, I don't care who you're rooting for.
That was something.
Oh,
it's
unbelievable.
Otherworldly on Friday night, you know.
Listen, I love that you started as a tour guide, too.
We lived a mile from Universal for almost 15 years.
And I took the kids there all the time.
It was closer than Disneyland.
Such a fun thing.
And that's such a great story that you started there.
Rex.
We'll talk about that tomorrow night if anybody wants to,
but it was one of the
greatest things.
I got to talk, believe it or not, for hours and hours, and they paid me.
It was amazing.
That tour is so much fun, too.
If you're a movie nut, I highly recommend it.
Rex, you want to put a ball on tomorrow night before we let you guys go?
Yeah, I'm so thrilled that Rocky's going to talk.
He is a wealth of information, and he does.
deliver on what he says he's going to do.
So I can't be more grateful to him and to you because you do a great show and you're having us on and I really appreciate it.
Thank you.
I love you to
my friend.
And I would love you to come and talk to our group too sometime when you're not doing your show.
We're going to have to figure out how to make that happen.
But tomorrow
I'm going to need airfare.
I'm going to need a per diem.
And
we'll have the limo pick you up and
we'll have the fluffers and the whole thing.
What is a flight from Green Bay to Milwaukee?
I don't need the rider man.
That's
right.
It is October 22nd.
It's a Wednesday night 7 p.m
It is, it is called Schmidties Bar and Grill.
It is on 16755 West Lisbon Road in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
It is open to the public.
It is free.
We say seven o'clock, but we say come early, stay late.
They got a great deal.
Buy a $20 pizza and get a free pitcher of beer.
So, you know, a beer or so.
whatever you want and so Wednesday night special for us so and we've got Rocky Wagonhurst who's going to speak to us and and we've got a great group of people what we've done is we have this educational component which is like having speakers like Rocky Michael and others we've got someone from SAG coming in either the end of this year or the first quarter of next year to talk about what it means to make your movie SAG and how you can do that and
But we also have projects that we do.
We do collaborative projects.
We've just did a recently, a small commercial for some people that we put together, a funny thing.
So it's a very active group.
It's a networking group, and I encourage everyone to come on out who can hear this, who sees this.
Look us up.
We're Mission 1 Billion.
It's a private group on Facebook.
It's a public group on LinkedIn.
But I've told you everything you need to know to be there tomorrow if you're in the Wisconsin area, the Chicago area, and you want to come up and join us.
Absolutely open to the public.
We've got Rocky, Wagonhurst.
Definitely buy Rocky a pitcher of beer and loosen them up and it'll tell you all the secrets about show business.
I will
tell you
everything.
And I'll stay until there's nobody left.
I love chatting.
Oh, that's great.
Do that often.
So anybody wants to come, I can't wait to see them and talk to them and tell them everything I know.
Rocky, it's been great meeting you.
Rex, great seeing you again, buddy.
Good luck with the event tomorrow, guys.
Thanks for spending some time with us here, and hopefully we can help you get some butts in the seeds.
Can I say one more thing?
Actually, Rocky is my guest on RexxMovieBeat.
We recorded an episode.
We're launching it now.
We didn't want to do it too premature to the event.
But so if people want to subscribe, it's free to subscribe to RexxMovieBeat on Spotify.
They can also hear Rocky there.
Outstanding.
Thanks so much, guys.
Have a great night and have a lot of fun tomorrow night.
Sounds like a blast.
You got it.
All right.
Rocky, Wagonhurst and Rex Sykes.
Go to the event tomorrow.
You going to go, Con?
They're not giving you airfare.
You've got to get yourself there, which is kind of a jib, but whatever.
we got someone lined up.
No, it sounds like a lot of fun.
You already know everything, too.
What are you going to learn?
I mean, you know your job, but if you went, you'd probably learn a lot of TV stuff.
a rabbit to show it.
Oh, no.
Do I have time to read it?
I'm going to go fast.
Steady eddy.
Anyone who says a name or word should be pronounced in only one way, lacks creativity and imagination.
People say two of Albert Einstein's greatest attributes were his imagination and creativity.
Ergo, you, Pete, may just be the next Einstein.
I agree, Eddie.
Thank you, sir.
Thanks, everybody.
Thanks to my guests.
Thanks to all the techs.
Thanks to Jimmy Pardo.
Have a great
night, everybody.
Good night, Wisconsin.
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